


home bound

by springinnovember



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Introspection, M/M, Reunions, Supportive Shiro (Voltron), lance and shiro talk, let shiro be happy 2k18, s7 rewrite, these kids need sleep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-02
Updated: 2018-12-02
Packaged: 2019-09-05 19:40:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16817134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/springinnovember/pseuds/springinnovember
Summary: a s7 rewrite in which shiro actually deals with his trauma, he and lance have a heart-to-heart, the galra haven’t invaded earth, and adam isn’t dead.or, what season 7 could have been.





	home bound

**Author's Note:**

> there were a lot of things i didn’t like about s7, so i decided to fix it.  
> aka a s7 rewrite almost 4 months late

On the way back home, Allura and Coran place several ground rules for what should happen once the paladins arrive back on Earth. Rules like landing their lions in the area designated by the Garrison, not leaving the Garrison grounds unless permitted, waiting until after the official press conference to greet their families.

There is one rule, though. One rule that is placed at a much greater importance than any of the others.

Don’t get comfortable.

Don’t settle back into the familiar walls of your childhood bedroom, don’t get used to eating all three meals a day (and certainly not with your family), don’t familiarize yourself with the faces (new and old) you see on Earth.

Don’t get comfortable, because the Galra are still out there, still enslaving entire planets and we are Voltron, the only team who can stop them and put an end to their evil reign.

Don’t get comfortable, Allura and Coran say, and all the paladins nod because sure, the rule sucks, but it makes a lot more sense than any of the shit they’ve seen in the past two years.

Don’t get comfortable, they say, and everyone nods, not realizing that everything seems easy in theory.

The same cannot be said for those ideas in practice.

The Black Lion is more cramped than Shiro would like— just because it’s the largest lion of Voltron does not mean it’s spacious enough for Keith, Krolia, the wolf, and himself.

Of course, he knows the four of them aren't crammed in the Black Lion just because it's the biggest. Shiro knows it has to do more with the Black Lion's pilot. The other paladins are intimidated by Krolia, annoyed by the wolf, and, frankly, still in shock over Shiro’s return from the dead.

Not that Shiro blames them.

While he and Krolia have talked since his revival (mostly about Keith), he is still a little wary of her. She’s tall and purple, has twelve fingers, and she can wield a blade better than anyone he’s ever seen. The wolf, despite being from space, is still a wolf, and therefore still annoying. And Shiro himself? The others have a right to be in shock by his death. He’s still trying to wrap his mind around it, and he was the one who actually died, whose consciousness was placed outside of his body and inside of the Black Lion for a good few months.

So of course the paladins would hand the three of them over to Keith. Shiro doubted any of the paladins could concentrate on flying with even _one_ of them in their ship, let alone all three. It had confused him at first- the fact that Keith, arguably the most antisocial of the paladins- could form such close bonds with the three beings considered most alien to their group.

But the confusion didn't last long. It quickly became evident to Shiro that Keith had grown in the past few months, that he had matured, that he had become a leader.

Shiro is nothing if not proud.

Shiro stands to the right of Keith, his hand resting on the back of the pilot’s seat. Krolia had wandered off to get the wolf some food in the back a while ago, so for now it is just the two of them. Well, Shiro and Keith and the four displays in front of them. Each screen contains a different paladin, the exhaustion on their faces shown in real time. But despite their lack of sleep, Shiro can see the concentration in their eyes and the determination in their brows.

They all want to go home.

Oh, Earth...

The screens had been good for the first few hours of their journey to Earth, when they’d all been chatty, high on the thrill that was going home. The problem was that most of them had spent the last two years of their life living in the same place with the same six people and, well, it’s hard to find new things to say when everyone has already said them.

Shiro can remember adding in one comment, maybe two, throughout the entire conversation. It’s hard to shake the feeling that he is an outsider now, the feeling that because he is not a paladin and because he has lost so much that he is no longer one of them. He just needs time to think this all through— his death and all the events that followed— and once he’s processed all of that, he’ll get better.

_I’ll get better, I’ll get better, I’ll get better, I’ll get—_

“Hey guys?” Shiro jumps at the sudden noise, and based off of the raised eyebrows of the other paladins, they’ve been jolted too. It’s Lance who utters the first words in what seems like days, and it’s actually nice to hear his voice. “How long until we land? Are we talking more like weeks or hours?”

It’s a question that’s been on Shiro’s mind, and probably everyone else’s too. None of them want to seem too excited to go to Earth, afraid that if they get their hopes up it might be harder to follow the rule:

_Don’t get comfortable._

But Lance has always been brave enough to voice his opinions, bold enough to let the team know what he is thinking. In that way, Lance reminds Shiro of himself when he was younger, when he was brave and daring before the diagnosis and Kerberos and _Him._..

He admires Lance, and he has vowed to tell him just that before they get to Earth.

Hopefully there’s time.

“Only a few quintants left, actually!” Coran answers, his voice ever-chipper, “Funny how time flies when you’re literally flying through spacetime!”

The whole team groans in unison, and it’s nice to see them all interacting, even if it is to groan at one of Coran’s terrible jokes.

Outside of the Lion space flies by, millions of stars and planets that they’ve never seen, millions of galaxies that just touch the surface of what the universe has to offer.

Only a few more days, and then...

_Then we’ll be home._

Some amount of time passes (Shiro’s internal clock has been messed up for a while now), and they land on an allied planet to stock up on food and rest.

They stay at an inn-type place where the owner lets them eat and stay for free because they are “ _The paladins of Voltron, the slayers of the Galra_!” He has a large mustache and large black eyes, and he seems genuine. He practically worships at their feet, which annoys Keith and feeds Lance’s ego, but other than that, the guy is great.

“So, what’s everyone most excited for back on Earth?” Again, there’s Lance taking charge, saying the thing that everyone has been afraid of, the thing that everyone has been mulling over in their minds for two years. They’re all sitting around a wood-like table at the inn, and they’ve been eating in silence for at least twenty minutes. Looks are exchanged around the table, and Shiro can tell the paladins from Earth are torn between spilling their guts and keeping quiet.

After a few moments of awkward eye contact, Hunk is the first to clear his throat.

“Well... I, uh.... I’m excited to see my family. My moms and my little sister, Talia. Last time I saw her she was seven... How old will she be when we get back? Nine? Twenty? Either way, I’m excited. They probably think I’m dead, which uh...” Hunk sniffs, once, twice, and his eyes are more glassy than they’d been at the beginning of his speech, “I’m not too happy about, but it’ll all work out. I know it will.”

There is silence, and Hunk’s eyes fill with water, potential-tears that threaten to spill. Lance, who sits next to him, pats him on the back.

“Hey, bud. I know it’s not easy,” Lance says after a moment, “Guess I’ll go next.”  
He finishes whatever piece of alien fruit he’d been eating, then continues, “I’m excited to see my family too, all thirty-something of them. I’ll probably have ten more nieces and nephews when I get back, which kinda sucks because I wasn’t there when they were born but—“ he trails off and laughs in the breathy-way, the kind of laugh that suggests one is not-so-happy. He takes another bite of fruit, swallows.

“I’m excited for them, and my mom’s cooking, and the giant McClain family group hug I’ll get when we land.”

Lance keeps it together surprisingly well, but Shiro suspects it’s because he’s holding something back. He has discovered that despite what many people think, Lance is good at keeping his emotions to himself when he needs to, good at hiding his true feelings when he knows it won’t help his team. But Shiro notices the way Lance has acted around him ever since he came back from the dead. He’s been honest to god _timid_ (a word he never thought could describe Lance McClain) and he seems to avoid being around Shiro period. Shiro makes a mental note to talk to Lance later, to actually talk about what happened to him and the Black Lion and explain to Lance that it’s _not_ _his_ _fault_ —

“How about you, Shiro?” Pidge asks suddenly. Apparently she had already taken her turn. All eyes are on him now, and his first instinct is to refuse. What good would it do the team for Shiro to talk about Earth, to talk about _Him_? He really doesn’t want to depress them anymore than they already are. But he takes the time to think, knows that everyone has just shared a very deep and personal part of themselves, and to not do the same in return would be unfair. They are equals, after all, something that has become very apparent over the course of their journey. They all need each other, literally. He takes a moment to breathe, figure out what he will say, and sighs.

Keith whispers in his ear, “ _Shiro, you don’t have to_ —“

“Yeah, sure. I’ll go.” Allura, Coran, and Hunk raise their eyebrows, while the mouths of Lance and Pidge hang slightly ajar. He doesn’t know if he’s ever talked about his life before Kerberos with anyone other than Keith. But, he muses, there’s a first time for everything.

“I don’t have much in terms of biological family so it’s not like I have, you know, a whole welcome party waiting for me. But I have a fiancé back on Earth,” And Shiro knows it’s presumptuous to think that Adam is still his fiancé. Things were already strained once he left Earth, and now he’s been gone for at least a few years and Adam has probably moved on. But Shiro has always seen the glass half-full, always hoped for the best. It was the vision of his fiancé that kept him from going crazy on Kerberos, and to even mention him _now_... it takes him a second to steel himself. “I’m excited to see him. ”

Lance’s mouth widens further at the pronoun, and Shiro makes another mental note to talk to Lance about that too.

“But really, you guys are like my family and... and if I went to space and you guys were stuck on Earth... I’d miss you guys too.” There is more silence, but this silence seems to hang in the air for longer than the one following Hunk’s talk, and Shiro, having been away from the team for so long (their actions now foreign to him), gets antsy.

beat.

beat.

beat.

Suddenly, there are arms around him. Arms covered in a red leather jacket— _Keith_? And then there’s Pidge, Hunk, Allura, and even Lance sliding out of their seats and moving to his side of the table, their arms around him promptly.

It... It brings tears to the eyes that Shiro had thought were dry, and it’s so... _odd_ because for so long he has associated tears with terrible things: getting diagnosed with a terminal disease, leaving Adam behind, being locked behind bars as a prisoner, killing innocent aliens for Galra amusement.

But these tears? He doesn’t feel broken or used or hopeless, he feels...

Loved.

Like maybe he isn’t an outsider.

A few doblashes later, everyone has left the inn’s dining area to get some much needed rest. However, twenty minutes after getting to his room, Keith realized his jacket wasn’t on his shoulders and asked Shiro to retrieve it. He had refused at first, but Keith could be very persuasive.

_“Well, it is your jacket. You need to be more responsible for your own things, Keith,” Shiro warned, giving Keith his disappointed stare._

_“It is your jacket,” Keith imitated in a high-pitched voice. “Shiro, need I remind you of the time I killed your evil clone? Or the hundreds of times I saved your ass from dying? Or...”_

Shiro doesn’t have much fight in him left anymore, at least not when it comes to Keith. So he finds himself walking to the large table they’d been sitting at just a few hours ago, which was not as empty as he thought.

“Hey, Lance. You okay?” He asks, approaching Lance cautiously. The paladin in question is sitting in the same place he’d been when Shiro had left, his arms resting on the table and his head hidden within them. Lance looks up at the mention of his name, and that’s when Shiro sees it.

The signs are barely visible in the dim inn-lighting, but they’re there. The tears that stain his cheeks, the red puffy eyes, the runny nose.

Lance, realizing he’s been caught, quickly tries to wipe all the evidence away, but Shiro, despite having died for who knows how long, is still fast. He’s at Lance’s side in an instant, his arm wrapped around him.

“Shiro, I—“ That’s how far Lance’s sentence goes before his voice breaks, before he bursts into tears once more. His shoulders shake as he sobs, up and down and up and down and—

“This is good, actually. I’ve been meaning to talk to you for a while now,” _This is_ good _? Really? Bad introduction!_ Lance’s blue eyes go wide, and Shiro kicks himself. He was supposed to be having an helpful conversation with Lance, not one that encouraged him to _cry_. “I uh... sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. Words haven’t really been... cooperating with me lately.”

Once he says it, Shiro sneaks another look at Lance, who looks... considering? Is that a good sign? Lance sniffs, then,

“Shiro, I know why you’re here.” His voice is strangled, it sounds like he hasn’t been happy in years. Shiro raises an eyebrow.

“You do? Really?”

Lance nods. “You’re here to tell me that you’re disappointed in me for not realizing that Kuron wasn’t you. You expected better than that, you don’t trust me anymore, and all the rest. I get it, I know,” Lance finishes with a lazy wave of the hand and looks down at the table.

Shiro just stares. For a while they sit in silence, a while where Shiro tries to figure out how Lance could think that. How could Lance have such a low opinion of himself, how could he possibly think that Shiro would ever— _could_ ever be disappointed in him.

And Shiro, deprived of sleep and love and human interaction... Laughs.

He laughs, softly at first, more like a chuckle, but he builds and builds until he is having a full-on laugh attack, to the point where Lance is actually concerned for his health.

“I’m sorry— Lance— It’s been a weird couple months and—,” Shiro takes a few breaths, then waits before continuing.

“Sorry. Again. I left my emotional stability on the Black Lion, it seems.” Lance’s eyebrows remain tight, “Lance, I... I know that you think this is all your fault, and, without hurting your feelings even more, I wanted to say that you could not be more wrong.

Lance, you’re brave... really fucking brave. How many 17-year-olds do you think could leave their families and their planet to pilot a sentient robot lion and defeat a giant alien empire? Exactly. None of them.”

Lance is less confused now, but he sniffles again, so Shiro decides to change tactics.

“Lance, what happened to me in the Lion... it’s not your fault. I could never blame you. No one could’ve guessed that I was really dead and my consciousness was in the Black Lion. Not even Keith, who I’ve known for years!” Lance frowns. Deeply. Still teary-eyed.

“But Keith did, eventually,” Lance mutters, and there it is, that rivalry (or whatever is going on between them) shining through. Luckily, Shiro is prepared.

“Yeah, he did, you know why? Because he had a lot more fucking clues! It’s like... It’s like Keith was playing sudoku with half the grid already filled in, and you only had like, one or two numbers!” Shiro, by now, is well-aware that his voice is... raised, but, by now, he doesn’t care. He does, however, hope he doesn’t come across as angry because he’s not he just... He wants Lance to understand. He wants Lance to know that it’s not his fault, that he is an important member of Voltron and an asset to the team as a whole.

It takes a few moments for Lance’s ragged breathing to stop, for his shoulders to finally cease all movement. But it happens. For the first time in the last thirty minutes, Lance looks up and meets Shiro’s eyes. The tears that streaked down his face are gone and... Is that hopefulness?

“Really? You... You think that?”

“Lance, it wasn’t your fault, and it never will be. I mean, if it wasn’t for your quick thinking and your good aim, we might all have died at one point or another. You’re a valuable member to this team, Lance, and as cheesy as it sounds, you’re an even more valuable friend.”

After this statement, Shiro expects one of two outcomes:

1\. Lance will smile and say “Thanks, Shiro. It really means a lot.”

2\. Lance will say nothing, but will give Shiro a hug, which says a lot more than words anyways.  
What Shiro does not expect Lance to do is start crying again, which is exactly what he does.

“Lance? Did i say something—“ And then, through the tears, Lance laughs.

“No, idiot! I’m crying because that was nice!”

And, for the first time in a long, long fucking time, Shiro smiles.

Lance’s crying takes a few minutes to cease, and Shiro stays for all of it. Afterwards, they end up talking and laughing in a way that somewhat resembles a normal conversation. Of course, most conversations don’t involve killing aliens and flying space lions, but again, their circumstances are... different. They’re in the middle of laughing at a joke Lance just told about mermaids when suddenly, Lance’s face sobers.

Shiro frowns. “Are you o-“

“Shiro, when did you know?” Lance’s voice is suddenly soft, his face vulnerable. As soon as Lance says it Shiro knows exactly what he means, but he wants Lance to actually say it, to admit what he’s thinking.

“When did I know what?” Lance's eyes shift, his fingers bounce on the table. 

“You know..." He takes a breath, "That you liked guys?”

There it is.

Shiro has only been asked this question once before, and it was by a 14-year-old Keith who was still struggling with his identity. He would’ve had more experience talking about it if he and Adam hadn’t kept their relationship a secret at the Garrison, but...

They both knew what would happen if they told their students, if they told the staff. People at the Garrison already whispered about the exact nature of their relationship because try as they might, they found it hard to keep what they had a secret. But if they had formally come out...

Shiro would be taken off of future missions, Adam would have been fired, and Keith would be  
expelled not soon after.

So, living a lie had been easier.

Takashi Shirogane, the youngest pilot in Garrison history, living a great big lie. It wasn’t a title he was proud of.

“It was always there, in the back of my mind. I tried to push it down, of course, because the Garrison would never let a gay pilot be headlining their expeditions but...” _But a lot of things. But he couldn’t, but he met Adam, but he dreamed of his best friend every night, but that night when Adam pushed him against the wall and..._ “But pushing it down didn’t work, and soon enough I had to face facts and stop running.”

Lance doesn’t speak for a while, his eyes are fixed on the table in front of him and he seems to be thinking, processing. Shiro doesn’t push him because he knows what it’s like, knows what it’s like to have that confirmation and knows what it’s like to be utterly confused.

“Shiro I... I thought I knew what I liked. I’ve had crushes on girls, I’ve dated a few and I liked how it felt when I kissed them. But then this guy comes along and... Well, you know.” And his face, it’s as though he isn’t sure if Shiro understands, as if Lance is looking for confirmation in his eyes. Shiro would be damned if he let Lance leave this table with anything other than answers.

“Yeah. I do.”

Lance’s face gives way to a small smile.

“Space is terrible and I hate waking up everyday and wondering if one of my best friends is going to die that day but... I’ve had time to think about that kind of stuff. Peace.”

 _God_ , did Shiro know. He nodded.

“Who knew defending the galaxy from purple aliens could help with self-discovery?”

A smile blooms across Lance’s face, one Shiro knows is just the tip of the iceberg, and it makes him feel like it’s worth it, like maybe opening up wouldn’t be such a bad idea. If he’s helped Lance in this way, who knows how many others he could talk to, how many kids he could say it’s okay to.

Countless.

The smile that graces Shiro’s face is so wide that it hurts. Lance smiles back and yawns for the first time since they’d started talking.

“Think ’m going to bed. I haven’t slept in like... 48 hours? 50?” Lance laughs in the nervous, sleep-deprived way. “Thanks for talking to me, Shiro. I uh... I really appreciate it.” Lance gets out of his chair and Shiro follows suit, both of them stretching muscles they hadn’t used in at least an hour.

“Glad I could help,” Lance smiles and starts to walk away. “Oh, and one more thing?”

Lance stops.

“I’m proud of you. For a lot of things. You’ve come so far, and being honest with yourself is a huge part of that. You’re a good one, Lance.”

Lance’s smile softens, his eyes are glassy.

“I uh... Thank you, Shiro.

Shiro never does get Keith’s jacket.

5  
4  
3  
2  
1

Their arrival on Earth is met with celebration and the press, which they had all been expecting, but certainly not to this capacity. The people that surround the lions go as far back as Shiro can see, a crowd so big he cannot spot any familiar faces, cannot spot one specific face, the face he missed the most—

“ _Shiro, they just asked about your arm_ ,” Keith hisses in his ear, helpful as ever. All of the paladins and him and Coran sit at a long table, a microphone in front of each of them. Shiro had only been to a few press conferences in the past, but none of them held a tee to this one. Shiro puts on his best TV face and answers.

“I was captured by Galra before my return home from Kerberos. They removed my arm and gave me a synthetic one, which acted as a weapon in combat. Recently, that arm was destroyed in a fight. We are working on a new prototype that will be available soon.”

The reporter who had asked the question nods, apparently satisfied. Shiro’s answer had been the truth, mostly. There were just some parts he thought best to leave out. Like how Keith had been the one who destroyed his Galra arm, or that even though Pidge and Hunk were working on a new one, he didn’t really want it. His metal arm was what the Galra used to control him, to turn him against his team. That arm... all he could think was that it was his connection to his captors, to his time with the Galra and the terrible things they made him do. He remembers Pidge telling him that she hacked into that arm when he went beserk, and he remembers when Keith almost died by that arm.

Shiro does not want anyone, ally or not, to be able to control him. He does not want a body part that can be hacked, he needs to be 100% him and only him. The Galra arm caused him much more harm than good, and never will Shiro cross his team again.

So, for now, no arm.

Even though the press conference seems to last for many, many hours, the team is still teeming with energy when it’s finished. How could they not be, when they know their families await them? How could they not be, when they know their family will embrace and love them? Everyone is anxious, Shiro can tell by the feet dancing and the fingers fidgeting, and even though he knows he shouldn’t be excited, the anxiety is contagious.

The paladins wait in a large Garrison rec room and their eyes are glued to the doors, the doors which, once the guards get the ok, will let their families in. The paladins shift on the chairs they sit in, and Shiro knows it’s not just the uncomfortable plastic.

Arriving on Earth allowed Shiro to finally accept that no one would be coming for him, that he has no family to be excited for. Hoping for Adam was just... Wishful thinking.

He’s been gone for what, two years now? Three? Adam probably doesn’t even know Shiro is back, doesn’t even care.

“Guys ohmygosh!” Hunk squeals, and points to the ominous doors. There is noise coming from the guards’ earpieces, which can only mean one thing:

Families are allowed through.

The two guards nod at each other, and in one synchronized motion, they open the grey doors.

More than half of the people who flood the room are Lance’s relatives. Shiro can tell who his nieces and nephews are, the smaller children whose smiles are contagious. They run to Lance and cling to his legs, smiling and cheering, “Uncle Lance! Uncle Lance!” Lance’s siblings follow, and they all look remarkably like him, even though some of them must be ten years his senior. His parents come in last. They look worn and tired but so _relieved_. And the smiles on their faces...

Their boy is finally home.

Hunk’s family is next. Two Samoan women walk in the room with a young girl in between them, holding their hands. The girl looks more like the woman on the left, who is short but very muscular, and has grey streaks of hair by her ears. Hunk looks more like the woman on the right, who is tall with short black hair. The girl, who Shiro assumes is Talia, runs to Hunk as soon as she sees him. He picks her up, spins her around, and they hug other with an unbelievable fierceness. His moms are crying. 

Finally come the Holts, with Pidge’s mom coming first, still in disbelief. She holds Pidge tight and whispers something into her ear, her eyes filling with tears. Sam Holt looks a few years older than when Shiro last saw him, even though it couldn’t have been more than a few months. He had assumed that Sam would be overworked when he got back to Earth because of his knowledge of Voltron, but apparently it’s been much worse. Sam’s alive though, and he’s smiling. That’s what matters.

It’s all so... It’s all so happy and it makes Shiro want to cry out of happiness and scream out of jealousy because of course he wouldn’t get a happy ending, he failed Adam and the Holts and his team and this is what he deserves. He thought he would get used to having his heart shattered by now, get used to the disappointments and the brain-fuckery that was the past two years but—

Then, Keith nudges him.

He has a small smile on his face, the all-knowing smirk that has annoyed Shiro for as long as they have known each other.

Shiro looks to him, confused, and then he follows Keith’s gaze to the door.

The door, which...

There’s someone there, someone—

He doesn’t want to get his hopes up, wants to keep his mouth shut because he has been disappointed too many times. He has seen this figure in his mind every day for the past two years, he cannot fathom it being real.

“Adam?”

He whispers it anyways, he cannot take a chance, not when it comes to Him. Shiro walks towards the figure, and the figure walks towards him.

Slow, cautious steps.

When they’re about seven feet apart, Shiro can see him completely, can see his glasses and his dark skin and his brown hair and—

“Takashi!” They run towards each other now, they run until they make contact and they embrace each other and Shiro, for the first time in three years, feels safe. They break away for a moment and Adam takes the time to look at Shiro, his teary eyes flicking from the hair to the scar to the arm and back again. But then he looks at Shiro’s face, into his eyes and into his soul.

“It’s... it’s really you.” And Adam is smiling and they are hugging and then there is the kiss and, and—

The tears in his eyes are no longer from sadness.

He is... home.

**Author's Note:**

> hope you enjoyed !!


End file.
